Jennifer Murray was born and grew up in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to parents for whom she “had to be both the highly successful boy and the traditional girl”. No small feat. She proudly states that she is “a Yorkshire woman”, which, along with her eloquence and humour, certainly draws me to her character, being a relatively genuine Yorkshire lass myself.
Having attended Barnsley Girls High School, she openly declares that she has “this deep feeling that if you’re not being distracted by the opposite sex, you’re better able to stock your mind.” Although I don’t necessarily agree with this view, I feel that Dame Jenni’s emphasis on the need to stock your mind is a valuable ideal. As if we have a choice to do anything but stock our minds here at Oxford.
Family is clearly very important to Dame Jenni. She can’t help but display her pride and adoration for her two sons as she happily shares that they’re now a vet and a photographer. She speaks of her great love for horse riding and how her grandfather first taught her to ride (and also to fall off) a pit pony when she was two years old, admitting, “I don’t fall quite so well these days.”
She recounts how, at the age of 15, she couldn’t comprehend why her father would sit reading the papers whilst her mother cooked family meals and cleared them away afterwards. Once, she confronted her father and asked why he wasn’t helping; he responded with an apology and actively participated in the washing up after that mealtime.
Woman’s Hour first became a part of her life when she was a toddler; she used to listen whilst perched next to her mother. After deciding on a career in journalism, she applied to the BBC against stiff competition from Oxbridge-educated men, being promoted at a pleasing rate because she was “such a bad typist”. Jenni eventually realised her dream when she became the presenter of Woman’s Hour. The day that she heard her name announced as the host of the radio programme was pleasantly surreal. “There was this history that was suddenly landing on my shoulders.”
Woman’s Hour is a programme on Radio 4 that is devoted to discussing topics that were “once unspeakable”, such as childbirth, the menopause and the inequality of pay between the sexes. There have been suggestions that the show’s name is now redundant and should perhaps be changed but, despite this, 40% of its listeners are men. As far as its host is concerned, “It has to continue to be called Woman’s Hour to keep the men intrigued.”
Dame Jenni is clearly proud of the variety in the show as she describes its inclusion of topics ranging from Caesarean section births to advice on how to de-slime your flannel. There’s s o m e t h i n g for eve r y one. Unsurprisingly, her time as host for the last 28 years has seen her interview just about anyone worth hearing from. “The most frightening was Thatcher, she had eyes that bored into you.” Her most interesting guest was Monica Lewinsky because “it was only on Woman’s Hour t hat she r eally g ot a f air h earing.” It’s true that international media were not exactly neutral towards the then 21 year old intern.
A mother of two sons and the host of a prominent UK radio show, Dame Jenni is a feminist who believes that sex education in schools is not doing what it should.
According to Jenni, this education is not only the responsibility of the teachers but also of parents. She smiles as she describes how, as young teenagers, her sons had asked if they could put up posters of semi-nude women in their rooms. Her response was, of course, that they could, on the condition that they agreed to their mother giving them a lecture on the objectification of women each time she went into their rooms. They accepted.
“We should ban sex education in schools and introduce gender education.” Dame Jenni believes that encouraging children to discuss the whole idea of consent and domination would be extremely useful.
It would certainly be more effective than teaching how to put a condom on a banana, which is what I was subjected to at school as part of our sex education sessions. The teacher couldn’t bear it, there was no hope of an open discussion in that class.
After meeting Dame Jenni Murray, one thing is blindingly clear: whatever the issue, no matter how taboo or uncomfortable, Jenni is never afraid to challenge it.
